How To Stop Conversational Manspreading: A Self-Help Guide For Men

It’s a conversational thing. Conversational manspreading is when men dominate a conversation or insert opinions into areas they just shouldn’t comment on.

It sounds like men using a question and answer period to insert an opinion. It sounds like stating opinion as fact. It sounds like men challenging women on their own lived experience. It sounds like former Governor Ed Rendell (D-PA) saying Hillary Clinton should smile more, even though he is ‘with her’ electorally speaking. It sounds like, well, conversations with men dominating that happen in classrooms and workplaces every damn day.

Conversational manspreading is not the same thing as mansplaining, or men explaining to women things they already know, although mansplaining can certainly be a tactic in the conversational manspreading toolbox.

So often we see self-help directed toward women as a way to rise above sexist inequality. Women are told we are underpaid because we choose the wrong careers, or we need to find the self-confidence to speak up, or we need to learn how to negotiate, even though new research shows that contrary to conventional wisdom, women ask for raises as much as men — we just don’t get them.

In this spirit, I’d like to offer some self-help tips for men so that they can find a way to rise above the insecurity and awry feelings that lead them to take up more conversational space than they need. Here goes:

Don’t tell a woman what she goes through when she has her period, or how she should think about her own anatomy or reproductive matters in general — just don’t. Ever. Even if you happen to work in the reproductive health field.

Don’t comment on how much or how little others are eating or exercising.

Don’t interrupt women.

Do not “shush” women as you disagree with them, either with sounds and/or your hands.

If you are answering every question or speaking to every point raised in a meeting, you are speaking too much.

If you’re a white person and you’re dominating a conversation about racism with your own opinions, you’re doing it wrong.

If you agree with something someone else said, say so. Do not present their opinions as your own.

Don’t respond to queries for questions with your opinions.

If you don’t have the lived experience, spend almost all of your time listening.

If you don’t have the lived experience, do not explain how those who do should respond to injustice.

Don’t tell activists they are doing it wrong.

Don’t respond to police brutality with a nervous call for everyone to calm down and remain peaceful.

If you are all over a listserv like every other post, stop it!

Don’t mansplain. Don’t mansplain what mansplaining means to the one woman sitting at your table of four (I sat next to that at a restaurant once and it took every fiber of my being to not whip out the video camera).

Don’t say something flirty or cute to someone who works below you, ever. It’s not a joke.

If you consider yourself a progressive man, all of the above still apply to you. Do not assume you are perfect.

Add in your tips for men to stop the conversational manspreading in the comments!